


Heart Rehab

by Enzo_Louise



Category: South Park
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 13:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13637643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enzo_Louise/pseuds/Enzo_Louise
Summary: Tragedy strikes Craig's life and he ends up being put into a rehabilitation center where he has a hard time recovering and keeping friends. But after finding Tweek in the same rehab center, his life begins taking a turn. For the better or worse, though, he's not sure.





	Heart Rehab

**Author's Note:**

> This idea was inspired by an angst prompt I found online. This is my first Creek fanfiction, and my second South Park one. I hope I don't do too horribly in trying to keep everyone in character. This first chapter is kind of lengthy since I got lost in writing and had trouble finding a place to stop. Updates will take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks since I'm busy with school and writing my other South Park fanfic. I hope you enjoy!

Craig stepped out of his mother's car and looked up at the large, two story building in front of him. This was the place he would be spending at least a few weeks in. Hell, he could even be there for a year or more. The noirette took a deep breath and closed the car door, then went to the trunk of the car that his mother had popped open and took his bags out before slamming the trunk close.

Laura walked out from around the side of the car and glanced at her son. “You ready?”

With a simple nod, Craig followed the woman as she began heading towards the Denver Rehabilitation Clinic. The place was fairly new, as it had been constructed only four years before, but it already had plenty of business. There seemed to be an increasing number of kids being admitted into rehabilitation centers in the quickly growing city of Denver, and the DRC had been made so they wouldn't be so crowded.

Despite the amount of kids being put into these hospitals, Laura hadn't had too much trouble getting Craig a spot in one of them. In fact, the DRC had been recommended to her by Clyde's father after he had put his own son in it a few months earlier.

It had all happened so fast. One day Clyde was at school, and the next day, he was gone. He didn't come back the following day, or any other day after that. After a week of hearing nothing from their friend, Craig and Token had gone over to Clyde's house to check on him. They were met with the solemn face of his father who told them that the death of his mother had been affecting him a lot more recently and he wasn't sure why or how to help, so he had him admitted into a rehabilitation center in Denver.

The shock Craig had felt that day was the same he had felt just a week earlier when his mother told him she was sending him away to a rehabilitation center for a while. It had taken some serious convincing of his father to get him to agree that it would be best for him to stay there, but Laura managed to get him to approve of it. Craig had spent as much time with his little sister Ruby as possible until the day he had to leave, making sure to give her advice for how to take care of herself while he was away. He had made sure to tell Token about the situation as well so he wouldn't be worried that he had disappeared like the two of them thought Clyde had. Token was very supportive and swore he would tell no one, wishing the noirette luck and promising to look out for Ruby.

Now, as Craig neared the rehab center, all that was on his mind was his little sister. He really hoped she would be okay by herself. He was snapped out of his thoughts when his mother placed a hand on his shoulder as they reached the front doors, causing him to look over at the woman. Laura gave her son a small, reassuring smile as she opened one of the double doors and let Craig go in first.

Craig stepped into the hospital with his bags in hand, the unfamiliar scent of cleanliness hitting his nostrils. He had honestly thought the place would be poorly kept, but it wasn't that bad, actually. The noirette took a quick glance around the room he had just walked into while his mom went to the desk at the front and began the process of signing him into the facility so he could stay for however long the doctors saw fit until they deemed him "better." There were chairs standing up against the walls, some of them occupied by other adults probably there to check up on the progress of their child or to visit them. There were some paintings on the walls to help decorate the otherwise boring white surfaces too.

It wasn't really much of a waiting room, but Craig didn't have to wait long before a woman with long brown hair entered the room from a side door. She wore a white shirt, black jeggings, a rust red trench coat, and some black heels. On her trench coat was a badge to certify she was a doctor who worked there. She approached Craig and stopped in front him.

"Hello. I'm Sandra Brown; you can just call me Sandra,” the woman introduced herself. “I've been assigned as your counselor and psychiatrist. I'll be working with you for the time you'll be here. What's your name?"

"Craig Tucker," the noirette replied simply. 

Sandra nodded and stuck out her hand, to which Craig hesitantly shook. "It's nice to meet you, Craig. I hope your stay here will be a good one. I'll certainly do my best to make sure you're comfortable here."

The brunette let go of Craig's hand to turn and look over at his mother, who had just finished filling out the necessary forms for him to be admitted. Sandra pulled out a card from one of her trench coat pockets and handed it to the blonde, saying, "This has my contact information and a link to my page on our website where you can look up anything you want on me in case you're worried. I assure you your son is in capable hands."

Laura glanced down at the card for a moment, then looked up at Sandra. "Thank you, Ms. Brown. I'm sure you'll take good care of my son."

"Please, just call me Sandra," the brunette suggested with a light smile before she moved back over to Craig. "We'll see you later, Ms. Tucker. I need to show Craig here to his room and give him a tour. You know, teach him the ropes."

With a nod, Laura made her way over to her son and looked into his eyes. "Craig, please be good. I love you."

"Sure, Mom," Craig responded, sticking up his middle finger at the woman out of habit.

Sandra watched the exchange with interest, her deep thoughts reflecting in her blue eyes. She spoke up then. "Alright, Craig. Let's get going. There's a lot you need to learn."

Sandra led Craig to the door she had come in from while Laura watched as they disappeared when the door shut close behind them. This door led to a very large cafeteria that had maybe twenty patients scattered around it sitting at different tables and chatting, some of which were patients visiting their parent(s) with their counselor/psychiatrist. Sandra had Craig follow her to the other side of the cafeteria where they exited the large room through a set of double doors. A long hallway lay on either side of them, an elevator sitting at both ends. Sandra and Craig walked down the right corridor, heading for the elevator that would take them to the next floor.

"This hallway contains therapy rooms and such. You'll be coming down here to the first floor for things like counseling sessions, meals, past times, and visits," Sandra explained as they made their way to the elevator.

She pressed a button next to the metal doors and they quickly opened for the two to get in. The brunette pushed the button for Floor 2 once they were inside, causing the elevator doors to shut and open once again shortly afterward to reveal another long hallway. Sandra ushered Craig out of the elevator and down the hall to the left.

"Your room is down this hall. There's another hall on the other side of Floor 2 as well, but you'll be staying over here in Room 102." Sandra took a set of keys out of a coat pocket and stopped in front of a door with the numbers "102" engraved in it. She put the key in the lock and twisted it until she heard a click. The brunette tucked her keys away and opened the door for Craig, revealing a simple room with a bunk bed, a desk and chair, and a large dresser.

Craig stepped into the room and set his bags down on the floor, then turned to Sandra. "Why's there a bunk bed?"

"It's just in case we decide to let you share a room with someone else," Sandra explained. "We don't usually put newcomers in rooms with others at first. Sometimes it helps patients to have roommates though, so we have bunk beds in every room for the occasion."

Craig simply nodded and spoke up to ask another question. "Should I unpack, or do you want to give me the tour now?"

"I'll give you the tour now. You can unpack later when you have time to actually get settled in," Sandra answered and beckoned Craig out of the room.

Sandra took about half an hour walking Craig around the facility and familiarizing him with the place. When she was done, the two of them began heading back to the hall Craig's room was in. As they came to the hall, Sandra caught sight of a head of brown hair—it was a patient of one her fellow counselors. The teen was Clyde Donovan, whose room was also in this hall since his room number was 108.

"Hey, Clyde!" Sandra called out and waved as she made her way down the corridor towards her patient.

The said teen turned around, and upon seeing Sandra, he smiled brightly and waved back. “Hey, Sandra!” He looked behind her to see his old friend and his eyes widened. “Whoa! Craig?!”

Sandra looked to Craig curiously as Clyde ran down the hall to meet up with the noirette and his counselor. “You know Clyde?”

Before Craig could even open his mouth to answer her question, he was suddenly glomped by the brunet.

“Dude, Craig! I missed you so much!” Clyde began sobbing, clinging tightly to the noirette and almost crushing him. “What are you even doing here?”

“It's a long story,” Craig grunted as he awkwardly patted Clyde's back. “What are _you_ still doing here?”

Craig regretted the words as soon as he had uttered them. The brunet bear hugging him suddenly tensed and he backed away from the noirette, looking down at the ground. “Uh... I... Well-”

“Never mind that,” Sandra interrupted quickly, trying to prevent a bad outcome of the situation. “Look, Clyde. Craig here is new to the clinic. Since you two know each other so well, why don't you help him around? I've already given him the tour, but you should have him meet some of your own friends and just be there to remind him of things.”

The change in subject seemed to relieve Clyde, and the brunet looked up to Sandra. “Yeah, sure I'll help.”

“Good,” the woman replied, pulling at her coat sleeve to reveal a silver watch she wore on her wrist as she checked the time. "Crap. I gotta go. I have another patient who has counseling in about ten minutes, and I have some things I need to do before it starts," Sandra announced, looking at each of the boys. "I'll see you two later. Have a good day. I might see you at dinner."

With that, the brunette walked off down the hall and left the floor using the elevator, leaving Craig and Clyde alone. Clyde turned to his friend.

“So, do you want to go to the first floor and meet some of my friends before dinner?” he asked.

Craig wasn't very good at making friends, especially with his habit of flipping people off and tending to not give a single fuck about anything, so he didn't have high hopes for getting close with Clyde's own friends. However, the noirette knew the brunet would be upset if he didn't at least try, so he complied. “I still need to get unpacked and shit, but sure.”

“Cool!” Clyde exclaimed excitedly, his eyes shining. “I'll be in my room since we're not allowed to go into each others rooms if we're not assigned the same one. It's 108. Where are you rooming?”

“Room 102,” Craig replied.

“Oh, sweet! We're in the same hall then.” Clyde began making his way towards his own room, which was just a few doors down from Craig's. “Just knock when you're ready.”

Craig nodded to Clyde and the brunet left the hallway to enter his room, closing the door behind him. The noirette went to his own room, and after shutting the door, he crouched by the bags he had set on the floor just earlier and began shuffling through them. It didn't take long for him to fill his dresser draws with his clothes and toiletries. After putting his bags away in one of the drawers, he stood up and took another look around the room. He knew it would be boring to stay in here all the time, more boring than he usually liked, and decided he would probably be spending more time on the first floor where there were actually things to do.

Craig exited his room and stepped up to Clyde's door, knocking on it a few times and waiting for his friend to answer. The door swung open after a few seconds and the brunet stood in the doorway. “Done unpacking?”

“Yeah. So let's go.”

Clyde smiled and led Craig down the hall towards the elevator. Once they made it to the first floor, they continued making their way down the hall and entered the cafeteria again where Clyde took Craig through a different door.

This door led to a large, comfortable looking room about the size of a gymnasium with a beige rug covering the entire floor. In the center of the room was a circle of couches and chairs surrounding a coffee table. There was also a television on the wall and a wide variety of movies on shelves underneath it. Some patients sat on the couches and conversed while others were staring at the television screen and watching a movie Craig wasn't familiar with. In two corners of the room were gaming systems with a sizable amount of teens sitting in front of the televisions on couches and chairs. The other two corners of the room had bookshelves stacked with books and board games, as well as tables with chairs pushed under them and a few couches. Plenty of people sat here too.

A tug on Craig's jacket sleeve made the noirette turn back to Clyde as his friend dragged him towards one of the corners with gaming systems. A small group of people surrounded a Playstation 3 where a short, light skinned Hispanic girl with black hair and red bangs was staring intently at the television screen as she invested in playing Sonic Unleashed. The other patients watched her play excitedly, some of them cheering her on.

“Hey guys!” Clyde called out as he and Craig neared the teens.

A familiar blond boy looked over the back of the couch he was sitting on to see Clyde walking up to them. “Oh, h-hey, Clyde.”

Craig's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he saw the boy's face. “Butters?”

Butters' eyes wandered over to the teen standing next to Clyde and he gasped. “Craig? Whoa! What are you doing here? Visits are in the cafeteria.”

“I'm not visiting,” Craig replied, shifting his weight as he kept his hands in his jacket pockets. By now, some of the other teens sitting around the television had turned to look at the newcomer and were listening in on the conversation.

“Well, what are you doing here then? Unless...” Butters' own eyes widened as the realization dawned on him. “Oh, hamburgers! You're a patient here now too?”

Clyde piped up and answered for Craig. “Yep! I'd like the rest of you to meet me and Butters' childhood friend Craig.”

At this, the short Hispanic girl paused the game she was playing and turned around, causing the rest of the group who hadn't been paying attention to the exchange between Craig, Clyde, and Butters to finally take notice. There were four other people on the couches besides the Hispanic girl and Butters, and they all greeted the noirette with a “hey.”

Clyde began pointing out his friends to Craig and introducing each of them. Craig met three boys named Steven, Cory, and Matt, as well as a girl named Skylar. The girl who had been playing on the PS3 turned out to be named Valerie. When Clyde finished, he took a seat next to Skylar and patted the empty space next to him on the other side of the couch.

“Why don't you sit down, Craig?” the brunet suggested. “Dinner will be in about half an hour or so.”

“Sure. Whatever,” Craig replied and sat beside Clyde, watching as Valerie unpaused the game and continued playing.

The group handed the controller from person to person every once in a while so everyone could get a turn playing, and when the controller came to Craig, he hesitated. Clyde urged him to play though, as well as the rest of the group, so he complied and took a turn. He wasn't too bad at it, and time went by quickly until it was time for dinner. A bell rung out throughout the building, and the people in the room started getting up and heading out the door to get into the cafeteria.

“That's the dinner bell,” Clyde explained to Craig. “Do you want to sit with us?”

Craig shrugged. “I guess.”

Valerie got up and turned off the PS3, then the group began making their way to the cafeteria. When they entered the room, the place was packed with people and Craig couldn't help but think of how much it reminded him of the school cafeteria back in South Park. They got in one of the lunch lines, and after getting their food, they headed to a circular table with their trays. The eight of them made idle chitchat while they ate, Clyde fondly retelling stories from his time in the facility. He was interrupted when a voice sounded out behind him.

“Hello, children.” Sandra made her way around the table to sit in an empty seat and put an arm on the tabletop, leaning forward. “Just here to check in on you guys. How are you, Craig? I see you've made some new friends.”

“I'm fine,” Craig replied. “Clyde introduced me to these guys. I already knew Butters.”

Sandra nodded. “That's great. It's always good to get acquainted with others on the first day here. It seems like a lot of you South Park kids know each other.”

“How many of us are there anyway? I already know there's four,” Clyde commented from beside Craig.

“Well, there's you, Craig, and Leopold, of course,” Sandra responded. “And then there's Tweek and maybe one or two more I don't personally know yet who are assigned to other counselors.”

Craig's interest suddenly piqued at the mention of another one of his old friends. “Tweek? As in Tweek Tweak?”

“Oh, so you know him too. So I was right,” Sandra confirmed. “Yes, Tweek is another one of my patients. I actually need to go see him after you guys.”

Curiosity filled Craig's mind as he began thinking about the blond boy. The last thing the noirette heard about Tweek's family is that after getting busted for putting meth in their coffee, Tweek had been sent to a rehabilitation center in Denver while CPS dealt with his parents. After taking going through their own rehab and taking classes as part of the deal with CPS, Tweek's parents were able to get their coffee shop back. They were still under careful watch, of course. This had all been a year and a half ago. Tweek hadn't been returned to his parents during that time—he was still here.

Craig's mind whirled. How was Tweek after all this time? Why hadn't Clyde or Butters mentioned that he had found Tweek here? Why was Tweek still here?

He was snapped back to reality when Sandra spoke up again. “How'd you like to come see him with me, Craig?”

The question took Craig off guard, and he didn't notice when the other teens at the table looked at him expectantly as if they had something they wanted to say. Did he really want to talk to Tweek after all this time? Things could have gotten worse for him and he might not even want to see the noirette. However, Craig's curiosity won and he replied. “Sure.”

“Come on then.” Sandra stood up from her seat and beckoned to Craig.

The rest of the teens at the table watched as Craig followed the woman. Sandra led Craig to a corner of the cafeteria where a blond boy sat at a small table by himself. Memories rushed through Craig's mind as he caught sight of Tweek secluded and far away from other people. He remembered how they used to play together from time to time as kids and how paranoid the other boy had been.

How different would Tweek be now?


End file.
